by Liz O’Donnell (Boston)
The Network Journal, a business magazine which provides news and commentaries on the workplace and focuses predominantly on Africa-American professionals, recently announced its 2009 list of “25 Influential Black Women in Business.”
The twenty-five women will be honored during Women’s History Month at the Eleventh Annual 25 Influential Black Women in Business Awards luncheon March 12. The event will be held at the New York Marriott Marquis Hotel.
Events like this one help to foster much-needed strategic networks for African-American business women. As we recently reported, the lack of these networks is often cited as one of the reasons there is still far too little diversity in executive suites and on corporate boards. As we reported last week, a recent poll conducted by The Executive Leadership Council showed that 31 percent of the 150 executives surveyed attribute advancement challenges for African-American women to weaker or less strategic networks available.
This year’s list of influential women includes two corporate attorneys: Sandra Scott, Vice President, Legal Affairs, Home Box Office, Inc., and Teresa Wynn Roseborough, Senior Chief Counsel – Litigation, MetLife. It also includes Vernã Myers, Esq., Principal, Vernã Myers Consulting Group, LLC. Ms. Myers’ Boston-based consulting company helps law firms and related organizations face the challenges of diversity and inclusion. Prior to starting her own business, Myers practiced corporate and real estate law for six years at Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault LLP and at Fitch, Wiley, Richlin & Tourse LLP.
Also among the recipients is Ci Ci Holloway, Managing Director, Diversity & Inclusion, for UBS Investment Bank. UBS offers programs in mentoring, work-life balance and managing a career comeback.
There are several women from the technology sector among this year’s honorees including Gayle Lanier, Vice President & General Manager, Knowledge Services, Nortel Networks; Elizabeth Williams, President & CEO, Roxbury Technology Corp.; and Kelly Chapman, Director, Diversity Recruiting, Microsoft Corp. Microsoft has an extensive program to reach out to potential employees from diverse backgrounds. The software giant partners with organizations like Catalyst, The Black Enterprise Women of Power Summit, the Society of Women Engineers and the National Society of Hispanic MBAs in its recruiting efforts.
“The women we are honoring on the eleventh year of these awards are, as usual, in the forefront of American leadership and symbolize the diversity and advancement that has occurred across industry lines,” The Network Journal Publisher and CEO Aziz Gueye Adetimirin said. “We salute them for achieving significant levels of success in their businesses and professional careers and for their myriad contributions to their community.”
Survey: The global recession – is it hitting women harder?
NewsTo mark International Women’s Day on March 8th, PricewaterhouseCoopers are running a snap survey to assess first impressions of the impact of the global economic crisis on women’s careers and prospects, now and in the future.
Will the recession break the glass ceiling or reinforce it? Will it set equality back ten years, or put women on an equal footing for caring and pay responsibilities? Have women been more adversely affected by job cuts than men?
Or is the recession’s potential impact on women all just hype?
Click here to take the survey.
Please share your thoughts – and pass on the survey to your friends and colleagues. It will take no more than ten minutes to complete, and a report on the results will be found in the coming weeks at the PwC Gender Agenda blog.
The survey website will remain open until March 10th.
Green Gables Haven: Filling Your Soul While Fighting Domestic Violence
Women and PhilanthropyIn 1991, Stephanie Fekkes was the only private sector female attorney in Barry County, Michigan. As more and more domestic cases came across her desk, she began gravitating toward family law. Women were more comfortable talking to another woman about their problems.
“I was helping people through a very difficult time in their lives and my passion for this work grew along the way,” Fekkes said. Her cases opened the doors to private problems not normally visible from the outside. The more domestic violence cases she saw in court, the more she realized there must be an even bigger, unreported problem out there, and it was apparent these women had no local resources.
The child of Dutch and German immigrants to the US, Fekkes says that it taught her to be thankful she grew up in a country full of opportunities. From a young age, she participated in service activities in her free time. After becoming a lawyer, she was one of the founding members of the Juvenile Drug Court program and the Law Day program that teaches fourth graders about the court system. She still serves as a member of the board and legal counsel for the Child Abuse Prevention Council of Barry County.
Read more
Tech Womens Program: Mothers of Invention
NewsInnovation is at the heart of every great problem solution and advances for humankind. With the current economic crisis, innovation is the answer doing more with less. What is true innovation and can you learn to “do it on demand”? Is this a skill you learn and, therefore, able to teach or is it an ability you are born with? Do women and men innovate differently? Is there more resistance to women innovators and if so, how can you make this work for you?
In this lively panel, women who have been successful innovators will share their experiences, focusing on their secrets for success. We will cover:
Moderator: Laura Erkeneff
Laura, founder of Training for Techies, Inc, has over 20 years experience in leadership development, training, coaching, organization development, and building leadership programs for technical professionals at all levels of the organization.
Panelists:
Danielle Deibler, Sr. Engineering Manager, Adobe Systems
Cinda Voegtli, President & CEO, ProjectConnections.com
Francine Gordon, CEO, F Gordon Group
Schedule:
5:30 – 6:30 p.m Registration and Networking
6:30 – 8:30 p.m. Program / Q & A
Register here
The Struggle To Achieve Equity Partner Status
Office PoliticsWhen the National Association of Women Lawyers released its annual survey at the end of last year, the statistics regarding women equity partners were sobering. Only 16% of equity partners are women. On average, only 15% of a firm’s highest governing committee members are women, and 15% of the national’s largest firms have no women on their highest governing committee. Furthermore, only 6% of firm managing partners are women. Since men earn almost $90,000 more than women at the equity level, ignoring the hurdles women face is not an option. When we spoke to women lawyers about the hurdles women face on the path to equity partnership, they inevitably identified three challenges: (1) a lack of role models or mentors; (2) the increasing importance of a book of business; (3) work-place bias.
Lack of Role Models
Christine Kirchner of Chamberlain Hrdlicka in Houston, believes a lack of role models is an important hurdle women lawyers face. “As an associate in our commercial litigation group,” she recalls “I was the only woman for a number of years and did not have anyone to serve as a mentor or ‘follow in their footsteps’ in building a practice, networking or developing business.”
“Additionally, as a younger woman,” she continues “I believe it is difficult to develop business when many of the decision makers within companies are still men and feel comfortable handing work to lawyers with whom they have developed a personal relationship over the years.” As a result of a lack of role models or mentors, Kirchner had to look to other women that practiced in the commercial litigation area that had been successful in Houston to develop her own “mentoring system” outside of the firm. Her initiative was instrumental to her development of her own book of business and ultimately becoming a shareholder at her firm.
Read more
25 Influential Black Women in Business
Newsby Liz O’Donnell (Boston)
The Network Journal, a business magazine which provides news and commentaries on the workplace and focuses predominantly on Africa-American professionals, recently announced its 2009 list of “25 Influential Black Women in Business.”
The twenty-five women will be honored during Women’s History Month at the Eleventh Annual 25 Influential Black Women in Business Awards luncheon March 12. The event will be held at the New York Marriott Marquis Hotel.
Events like this one help to foster much-needed strategic networks for African-American business women. As we recently reported, the lack of these networks is often cited as one of the reasons there is still far too little diversity in executive suites and on corporate boards. As we reported last week, a recent poll conducted by The Executive Leadership Council showed that 31 percent of the 150 executives surveyed attribute advancement challenges for African-American women to weaker or less strategic networks available.
This year’s list of influential women includes two corporate attorneys: Sandra Scott, Vice President, Legal Affairs, Home Box Office, Inc., and Teresa Wynn Roseborough, Senior Chief Counsel – Litigation, MetLife. It also includes Vernã Myers, Esq., Principal, Vernã Myers Consulting Group, LLC. Ms. Myers’ Boston-based consulting company helps law firms and related organizations face the challenges of diversity and inclusion. Prior to starting her own business, Myers practiced corporate and real estate law for six years at Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault LLP and at Fitch, Wiley, Richlin & Tourse LLP.
Also among the recipients is Ci Ci Holloway, Managing Director, Diversity & Inclusion, for UBS Investment Bank. UBS offers programs in mentoring, work-life balance and managing a career comeback.
There are several women from the technology sector among this year’s honorees including Gayle Lanier, Vice President & General Manager, Knowledge Services, Nortel Networks; Elizabeth Williams, President & CEO, Roxbury Technology Corp.; and Kelly Chapman, Director, Diversity Recruiting, Microsoft Corp. Microsoft has an extensive program to reach out to potential employees from diverse backgrounds. The software giant partners with organizations like Catalyst, The Black Enterprise Women of Power Summit, the Society of Women Engineers and the National Society of Hispanic MBAs in its recruiting efforts.
“The women we are honoring on the eleventh year of these awards are, as usual, in the forefront of American leadership and symbolize the diversity and advancement that has occurred across industry lines,” The Network Journal Publisher and CEO Aziz Gueye Adetimirin said. “We salute them for achieving significant levels of success in their businesses and professional careers and for their myriad contributions to their community.”
The Network & Affinity Leadership Congress
NewsIn corporate America’s war to attract and retain top talent, diversity is front and center. People of color, women, the LGBT and disabled communities have made huge strides in advancement by forming thousands of groups inside corporate America to work together for culture change and address the way companies do business with diverse markets. On February 25-26, in New York City, Diversity Best Practices and Working Mother Media are hosting the third annual Network and Affinity Leadership Congress (NALC). This congress brings together network and affinity group leaders from America’s top companies for leadership training, networking and to share best practices.
This is the ONLY event of its kind bringing together leaders from all types of network and affinity groups from all industry sectors to examine ways to increase their groups’ value to business.
Register here to learn about rates and discounts
Bright Spots in the Financial Sector Job Market
NewsAccording to Steve Candland, Managing Partner of Advantage Integrated Talent Services, “generalist junior investment bankers” – people who are only a couple of years into career at professional level – are having the most difficult time in the current job market. “Also, on the capital market side, credit default swaps, which was a fast growing area just a year ago, has seen a steep drop as well.”
But is it all doom and gloom out there?
Read more
The Great Distraction
NewsTimes are tough. People are losing jobs, losing homes, and losing heart. While we at The Pink Agenda haven’t yet come up with a plan to get the economy back on track, we know that any stimulus package
of ours would include a seriously spectacular party.
Having said that, we hope you’ll join us for The Great Distraction on Wednesday, February 25, an evening of entertainment and escapism.
Get ready for some fantastic food, great drinks, amazing music, and lots of good karma. The donation is $20 and, thanks to our sponsors, we’re offering complimentary Pink Agenda cocktails until 9:00 p.m. and a chance to win a weekend stay in a suite at the Hotel Rivington. Because, let’s face it, we could all use a little break from reality.
Please be sure to RSVP by February 18 and include your company affiliation. There will be a strict door policy, and RSVPs are not only encouraged but required.
See you on the 25th.
Ask-A-Recruiter: Personal Performance Reviews
Ask A RecruiterLast week I wrote about how to maximize your company review process. This week’s piece is for those employees at companies that do not have a formal review process. Furthermore, I coached a mid-career researcher last week who felt adrift in her career. When we actually itemized where she was and what she needed to do, she felt energized and inspired (and much more confident). Effective reviews accomplish three main things: measuring progress; setting goals; and defining an action plan. Whatever your job situation — if you work for yourself, are an employee or are in between jobs — give yourself a personal performance review.
Read more
Leading Women MASS: Fire Up Your Job Search Workshop
NewsFeeling confident in the way you approach your job search is essential to a successful job transition. In this difficulty economy, it may be time to redirect your current strategies and put winning techniques to work. This workshop will address the do’s and don’ts of writing a resume, key networking tools, starting a new career, pursuing entrepreneurship and much more.
seating is limited and advance registration is required. Register here